Teaching

Management education in India is offered as a degree by universities and as a postgraduate diploma by the All India Council for Technical Education approved stand-alone institutions. The present work focuses on the challenges of the pedagogy and curriculum adopted by the management institutions offering postgraduate-level programmes. The palpability of localised curriculum with pedagogical innovations cited in the National Education Policy 2020 are critically discussed here. The higher education institutions offering degree or postgraduate diploma in management programmes are segmented into three tiers. The daunting questions and scaling of the mid-tier institutions are the focus of this critical review.

Teachers ought to be of flexible mind, recognising that there is no “final” conclusion in matters concerning teaching and learning.

Reflecting on their experience of using The Economy to teach undergraduate students in India, two teachers of economics discuss the need for a version of the alternative textbook that addresses the needs of students who seek to understand the Indian economy. The possibilities of such a version of the textbook are discussed.

The Economy presents a new approach to teaching macroeconomics. It starts from real-life institutions of macroeconomic policy management, teaching models that engage directly with these institutions. Money and monetary policy are explained in the context of modern banking systems, while the Phillips curve is derived from the labour market model. By emphasising empirical applicability, and the linkages with microeconomics, it provides students with a more intuitive and realistic understanding than standard approaches.

The political economy of managing the contract teacher cadre has proved difficult, with protests, strikes, anger and court cases consuming teacher as well as administrative time and resources, while doing little to build stability and effectiveness inside classrooms. Indeed, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh--two of the earliest adopters of contract teachers--have either reversed or significantly modified their policy of hiring teachers on contract. A study conducted in nine states --Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh--examines how widespread is the practice of hiring contract teachers across states; to what extent does the profile of the average contract teacher differ from that of regular teachers; what have been the challenges faced by states in meeting their enrolment goals using contract teachers from a political-economy perspective; and how sustainable is the practice of hiring contract teachers.